Even though he was tossed from office by voters in his district after one term in Congress, Allen West seems to think that people need to listen to what he has to say. Apparently some do. West decided to weigh in on the Republican debate and pick his winner, along with offering some other thoughts on Thursday. It looks as though he may have developed a case of “stopped clock syndrome” (even a stopped clock is right twice a day, or once if you’re Rick Perry), because with one of those other thoughts, he actually makes a little sense.

West says that as far as he was concerned, the winner of the debate was Carly Fiorina. That opinion puts him in agreement with a much smarter human being, Ezra Klein. But while Klein explains that he thinks Fiorina won because of the effective way she went after Donald Trump, West says that she was “stern” and leaves it there. He never offers another reason for why he thinks she won.

“It’s interesting to hear pundits assert that Ms. Fiorina came across as too stern,” West writes. “Well, let me tell you something, in these days and times we need stern. Golda Meir was stern. Margaret Thatcher was stern. If we want a joker, then check out Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger in the Batman films.”

In all of two paragraphs West is done writing about the candidates and how he thinks they did. Then it’s on to classic Allen West — attacking President Obama.

West pivots from Carly Fiorina to Vladimir Putin, quoting from a Jerusalem Post story regarding Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trip to Russia to meet with Putin. This, West says, is happening because “America under President Obama is no longer a leader.” Or maybe it’s happening because the current hotspot in the world, Syria, is in the Russian sphere of influence and has been for years. Maybe it’s happening because Barack Obama has wisely decided that it’s time to let Russians get shot at and killed in the Middle East, rather than Americans. But no, to West, this is a sign of Obama’s weakness. West says that Netanyahu “recognizes who has the moral high ground and is meeting with the ‘stander on the mountain.'”

While West is complaining about President Obama ceding the fight against ISIS to Russia and Putin, he makes no mention of the one argument that could be legitimately used to claim that the U.S. should be taking the lead on the issue: George W. Bush broke the Middle East, so it should be up to America to clean it up. But that would be admitting that one of his heroes, not Barack Obama, is responsible for the mess in Syria and Iraq and the accompanying refugee crisis.

During his rambling, stream of consciousness style essay, West does briefly come across as sane when he attacks CNN’s debate coverage. He writes,

“There was no doubt that CNN and Jake Tapper, wanted to start an ‘Animal House’ food fight and a circular firing squad. It seemed they wanted to create the Circus Circus atmosphere.”

Of course West didn’t criticize Fox News for doing something similar when they hosted the first debate, but he’s right on the money about how the media — almost all media — choose to handle coverage of political campaigns. It is like a circus atmosphere. The media, Fox and right-wing pundits like West, are less interested in talking about the issues being discussed than they are in talking about the so-called “horse race.” Who’s ahead in the polls, who said what, who wore the wrong color suit, whose “scandal” is going to hurt them and help another candidate, etc, etc. West won’t admit it, but he’s joining in with the crowd that he criticizes every time he brings up “Benghazi,” or Hillary Clinton’s email server.

West goes on to suggest that, instead of debates, maybe candidates should be interviewed individually, by a “two person team.” An interesting idea, although a better idea might be to switch to a true debate format, where candidates question each other, and discuss the issues among themselves, with a moderator present only to keep order. Of course, in a field as large as the current GOP group and given some of the personalities in that coterie, that format would be unworkable. Maybe West’s suggestion would be worth a try.

But this is Allen West, after all, so that moment of sanity is followed by a return to his typical demeanor. Who would West like to see running future debates? Some veteran, respected newspeople? Dan Rather? Gwen Ifill? No, West throws out the names of two people who are almost as crazy as he is: right-wing radio hosts Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham. So much for West’s “stopped clock” moment of sanity.

Author: Wes WilliamsWes Williams is a lifelong political junkie, stuck in the red end of blue Delaware, where he lives near the beaches with his wife of 33 years and three cats. While politics of all sorts are his passion, he is particularly interested in issues involving labor, education, and the justice system.
Follow Wes on Twitter at @WesWilliams_AI or on his Facebook page, LeftOfLiberal.